Skip to main content
🇷🇺
10 min
Father and Son at 150 Restaurants
Vadim Lapin demanded his son be a partner, not heir. Mark won "Best Restaurant" independently. Three days after Vadim's death, the test begins.
Insights
Intelligence from Global South markets moving faster than headlines suggest.
27 insights
Intelligence Others Can't Access
Not think pieces. Not trend reports. Inflection point intelligence on specific brands, founders, and markets—the proof layer that data platforms can't provide.
27 insights shown
Scaling Up
🇲🇾
14 min read
When the Platform Becomes the Product
They had 9,000 products from other brands. Then they looked at Amazon's plans and realized they needed something no one else could sell.
🇲🇾
7 min
The Son Who Nearly Died Now Runs the Business
Marcus Teo's kidneys failed at two. His mother almost quit to save him. 34 years later, he runs the business—crisis forged both generations.
Export Journeys
🇨🇳
8 min read
The China+1 Moment: Betting on Diversification Before the Crowd
When Dezan Shira expanded to India and Vietnam in 2008, skeptics called it crazy. A decade later, US-China tensions proved the bet prescient.
China
Professional Services
Scaling Up
🇲🇾
13 min read
The 70% Revenue Engine Nobody Saw Coming
A Hong Kong chef bought a bottle as a tourist, then declared it 'the best in the world' on TV. That made sesame oil 70% of revenue.
Malaysia
Gourmet Foods
Crossroads
🇲🇾
25 min read
The Shahbandar Solution: 84 Languages, One Port
Four harbormasters managed commerce in 84 languages at Malacca's peak. When monopolists captured the port, merchants relocated.
Crossroads
🇲🇾
17 min read
The Fox Who Founded an Empire
A rebel fugitive built institutions that outlasted three colonial governments. Legitimacy flows from solving problems, not official approval.
Crossroads
🇲🇾
17 min read
The $187,000 Revolution
Banned from Hong Kong, expelled from Japan. Sun Yat-sen found refuge in Penang, where merchants who never saw China funded its liberation.
🇷🇺
18 min
67 Days: A Founder's Final Succession
67-day knowledge transfer. 'Winery of the Year' 12 months later. How Samsonov defied the 60-70% failure rate of founder transitions.
Scaling Up
🇷🇺
12 min
The Rock That Survived Every Storm
Ruble collapsed 70%. Competitors raised prices 200%. Ostrobrod froze them—one month of destroyed margins built 30 years of customer loyalty.
Scaling Up
🇷🇺
6 min read
Vertical Integration: The Hidden Moat
When crises hit, Global South brands don't scramble for suppliers—they own them. Infrastructure ownership becomes unreplicable moat.
Crossroads
🇷🇺
23 min read
Kazan: Rebuilding After Catastrophe
Ivan the Terrible killed 110,000 in 1552. Five centuries later, the Qolsharif Mosque rises again. Identity survives total defeat.
Crossroads
🇨🇳
12 min read
When the World's Greatest Port Vanished
In 1292, Marco Polo called it the greatest port in the world. Today most have never heard of it. The lesson: trust networks outlast governments.
Market Map
🏴
22 min read
Abkhazia's Wine Sector: Isolation as Advantage
10.4% of Russia's wine import market, 5th largest supplier, yet invisible globally. War, sanctions, geopolitics forged Abkhazia's $60M+ sector.
Abkhazia
Wine
Market Map
🇰🇵
16 min read
North Korea Skincare: Survival Through Crisis
Two state factories, 70 years of production, 300+ products—hidden behind sanctions. Not because they failed. Because no one looked.
Market Map
🇲🇳
26 min read
Mongolia's Natural Beauty Sector
From yak milk and -40°C botanicals, Mongolia builds EU-backed beauty brands—centuries of nomadic tradition meeting 21% annual export growth.
Market Map
🏴
8 min
When Quality Demands Defying Your Government
Alkhas Argun called his government 'disgusting' for charging a UN expert with espionage. Defending quality meant risking everything he built.
Abkhazia
Wine
Export Journeys
🇲🇳
8 min
From Pollution Crisis to Mongolia's Beauty Empire
Pollution allergies became a business empire. Columbia graduate Khulan couldn't find natural skincare in Mongolia—so she created Lhamour.
Export Journeys
🇷🇺
8 min
Doors Slammed Shut—One Opened Faster
Sanctions closed Europe overnight. Fanagoria tripled China exports in 90 days—800,000 bottles redirected in three months proves agility wins.
Market Map
🇷🇺
8 min
The $548 Million Bet on Russian Terroir
$110M bet on overlooked Russian terroir everyone ignored. Fifteen years later, Lefkadia ranked World's Best Vineyards Top 30—ahead of Tuscany.
🇷🇺
8 min
When Succession Meets Sanctions
Three generations, one imperial estate. When 2022 sanctions closed Europe, Pavel Titov tripled China exports in 90 days.
Market Map
🇷🇺
8 min
The 750,000-Ruble Bottle
750,000 rubles for a grape the world never heard of. Krasnostop Zolotovsky grows nowhere else—obscurity is advantage when quality meets story.
Growth Partners
🇮🇳
9 min
When VCs Break Their Own Rules: India Quotient's Unprecedented Bet on SUGAR
VCs broke every rule with personal loan from management fees. 58-month seed-to-A wait. What made India Quotient bet when 100+ others said no?
Scaling Up
🇷🇺
7 min
From Provincial Ufa to Paris Fashion Week: How Geographic Disadvantage Became Creative Edge
From provincial Ufa to Paris Fashion Week. No connections, no proximity, no fashion pedigree. Geographic disadvantage became creative edge.
Export Journeys
🇪🇹
8 min
$5,000 Built Ethiopia's Global Fashion Empire
$5,000 startup created 100,000 jobs across 45 countries. World's first Fair Trade footwear proved poverty wasn't the problem—invisibility was.
Scaling Up
🇨🇳
8 min
Perfect Diary: 20% of China's Beauty
$16B peak → 98% crash → the strategic lesson. Traffic arbitrage builds awareness, not loyalty. Only brand equity protects margins.
Export Journeys
🇲🇳
9 min
When Your Country Doesn't Exist Online: Lhamour's Infrastructure Warfare
PayPal blocked Mongolian payments. Forbes featured the brand anyway. The workaround—foreign warehouses just to accept credit cards—became competitive moat.
Have Intelligence We Should Develop?
Know a brand at an inflection point? Need intelligence on a specific market or sector? Let us know.